Amazon is changing what is written in books
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I do order from online stores quite a bit, but at least I minimize what data they have on me. For example, even before I started caring about privacy, I just happened to always receive the goods in the store's physical office and pay in cash (the former - because delivery to your door cost extra, the latter - because I was and still am uncomfortable using a card, especially online). That actually excludes the biggest Amazon-like marketplaces (we don't have Amazon itself, but have several similar ones), since they require prepaying for the order.
Recently I also started ordering without even interacting with the site - I just ask the cashier to order for me into this particular office, and decline when they ask for a phone number for the notification, saying I remember when to come and pick it up.
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And here’s a reminder that if you run a Plex server, there’s an app called Prologue which turns it into a fully fledged audiobook server.
Plex doesn’t natively support things like audiobook bookmarks in m4b files, and tries to just play them straight through like a gigantic 4 hour long music track. But Prologue does support bookmark data. Prologue simply uses Plex’s service to access the files, (because admittedly, Plex is good for letting newbies remotely access their content) and then it ignores Plex’s built-in “lol just play it like music” instructions, and actually parses the files for bookmark data.
As someone who couldn’t get Audiobookshelf to work properly, (something about not being able to access network drives via Docker), Prologue has saved my audiobook library by allowing me to just host it via Plex instead.
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That's not unlike the experience on my Kobo Elipsa 2e.
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What you've written is true, but none of it applies to ebooks.
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Is there a text version of this?
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The changing the Books part hasn't been archived in the Catf wiki yet, but the non downloadable books is already fully written
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That's why Richard Stallman calls kindle the swindle.
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I haven't looked at or held or otherwise directly perceived a kindle in many years now, but when I did it was insanely easy to just pop any old file into a converter and slip that onto the kindle and pirate and read as you like. Did they put a stop to that with some proprietary nonsense?
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If I ever embrace my fate as a lonely housewife book author, I'm going to have a rough time, because the kind of people who would forever love me for producing my books and sharing them as free (with the option to donate) and the kind of people who buy lonely housewife books are two completely different circles and I wouldn't be able to spend all the time necessary to 'market' myself online to get the books in the hands of people who want them, if I'm trying to spend that time writing.
Maybe what we need is an apparatus. A website where authors can share full-size books, users can vote on them, and if you like them enough you can give money to those writers.
I just don't know how we'd get that, be able to allow any author to share their book, and still have quality control.
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So... z-library?
https://z-lib.gs -
Is that what the "you can't download your shit anymore" is really reaching at?
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I just buy physicals of the reference books I really want and pirate the digitals of anything else that isn’t sold DRM-free. I WILL own what I bought, whether they like it or not.
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Piracy was, is and remains a service problem, as Gabe Newell of Valve (Steam) once stated. Most people are perfectly content to pay a reasonable price to get access to the things they want. But if you make that impossible, they’ll find other options.
Take anime for example: even if you subscribed to every streaming service out there, you still wouldn’t be able to see everything you wanted. Some things aren’t streamable or sold ANYWHERE, or only on a service that’s actively blocked in your region. Which means there is simply no legal way for you at all to get that content.
Music on the other hand solved that dilemma. You can use Spotify, YT Music, Apple Music or a host of other options. You pay a flat fee and you can listen to pretty much every song you want, as often as you want. Nobody’s pirating MP3’s these days, because nobody needs to. It’s now more convenient to just stream it.
I’d really like to see someone do the same for books. An unlimited digital library that lets you download anything you want for a flat subscription fee. I’d pay 10 bucks a month for that for sure. Because that would make it more convenient than pirating is right now, with a more consistent experience.
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Bruv real libraries will let you download books for free
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WB/Discovery+ just screwed people in the UK for watching cycling. It was £7 a month to watch before, which I was happy to pay. They just put an end to that and now bundled the cycling with their premium sports service for £29. I'm not paying all that when I only want cycling and none of their other content.
I cancelled my subscription, asked them to delete my account, purchased a fire stick and now paying for some dodgy IPTV service to watch it there for a fraction of the price.
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Yes, a lot of them do. But their digital selection often is pretty limited and comes with restrictions.
For example: our Dutch national online library lets you ‘borrow’ 10 e-books at a time. You get 21 days to read a book, but you can extend that one time by another three weeks. After that, you have to ‘return’ and ‘check them out again’ if you want to continue reading. With my particular reading habits, that’s a hassle and wouldn’t work for me.
But the biggest issue is: they only offer a limited selection. Basically, NONE of the books I’m reading now are available through that system.
I want to be able to read every book I want, no time restriction. And that’s not possible with the current digital library system they offer.
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I'm glad I've already pulled my audible library in to audibookshelf, I didn't have many ebooks so didn't bother with them. I'm moving to librofm this month I think.
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The bigger question is do they care. At worst they get a slap on the wrist by the US government. At best they get to control the narrative and have books like having history books on their platform talk about how the the Allies first striked Nazi Germany because they were lifting the country out of economic crisis and making the world a better place.
I doubt they'll care or listen if EU says stop since they'll just find a way around whatever they have planned to try and stop revisionist ideology from taking hold.
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I've got an old Kindle, but not too old, which I jailbroke just yesterday with Winter break. I recommend that method for those considering getting drm free usage out of their device (instead of it contributing to ewaste).
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Most people are perfectly content to pay a reasonable price to get access to the things they want. But if you make that impossible, they’ll find other options.
That's a sliding scale, though. Streaming comes at a fixed price.
